


Kill the dragon, save the princess

by Honigfuchs



Category: The Expanse (TV)
Genre: Gen, Major Character Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-26
Updated: 2020-05-26
Packaged: 2021-03-03 05:16:20
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,286
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24389539
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Honigfuchs/pseuds/Honigfuchs
Summary: Holden is badly injured and trapped in the cargo bay while the crew handles the protomolecule monster. This is a missing scene at the end of 2.13 "Caliban's War" that explains how the crew rescue their captain.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 24





	Kill the dragon, save the princess

On to the "Rocinante"

Holden looks at the blinking red lights on the control display of his spacesuit. He silenced the alarm so hopefully the crew doesn't recognize that his heart rate is much too quick and his body slowly floods his own blood system with poison. 

His left leg is painfully pinned between the metallic wall and the magnetic cargo box. Holden take a deep breath, they have another urgent problem to fix first.

His gaze wanders back to the protomolecule monster that digs with powerful punches through the decks of the Rocinante. When it reaches to the reactor core of the ship, they are all dead for sure. 

Over the crashing metal noises in the cargo bay Holden try to listen to Naomi's voice over the radio. The thrumming, white hot pain in his left leg make it difficult to follow the hole topic of the conversation but he understands that his crew follow the plan, to use the warhead of a nuclear torpedo to lure the hybrid from of the cargo bay to the outside of the Rocinante and kicks him out into space. 

The picture of the monster before him is going to get cloudy and Holden shakes his head to clear his vision. 

The drive of the Rocinante powers down and within the creature stops his doings. It raises its head to look at Holden again, slowly moves into his direction. He listen while Naomi speaking to Prax how to remove the nuclear core, they are somewhere outside on the hull. 

Just in the second Naomi opens the warhead, the monsters focus files to the big hole at the air look. "Guys," Holden manages to speak out with a shaking voice "its working." 

After Prax got the core in his hands the monster is out of the cargo bay with two big jumps. Holden feel all the tension flow out of himself in relief. "It's out the door." Amos confirms over the coms.

All the adrenaline within him is gone and with shaky breaths Holden feels the full package of pain come back in a rush. It crushes him like an asteroid and a long goan escapes his lips. He grabs the metal of the cargo box and concentrate to follow the chatting over the coms.

Naomi is yelling into his ears and the feeling that his heart want to burst out of his ribcage is overwhelming. Holden try to slow down his breathing- unfortunately without any success. His lungs are burning from the effort to get some oxygen into his system. 

The last thing he hears is Naomi's voice that comes over the radio "Alex. We're in. Do it!" and the response from the pilot "Firing up the barbecue!" 

Holden smile, his crew has made it. They are save! Then pain is getting too much and Holden feels that his body giving up. His vision goes black and he thankfully let himself get swallow from the darkness with an exhale of relief.

\--

"The bastard's dead for sure!" 

"Great, Alex. How is James?" Naomi asks over the coms.

"He's not responding. Burton is on his way and checking him." 

\--

When Amos is coming through the airlock he already knew that something is wrong. His captain is not looking at him. It looks as if Holden is still gripping the metal from the box but his head is rolling slightly sideways with every movement from the ship. 

"Holden?" he asks as he approaches his captain and grabs his helmet. Holden’s eyes are closed, the color of his skin locks almost translucent and his lips are light blue. Amos eyes flicker to the display on James arm. All lines are red- the mute sign is blinking in one corner.

"Naomi." he shouts "get a medichair and an autodoc ready. Holden is out cold. I think he's going into shock and I get him to the med bay as fast as possible." Within seconds Amos focus goes to the panel of the cargo box to unlock the magnetic ankers and free the unconscious man. 

"Don't you dare dying here." Amos is cursing between his teeth "I am not let you get away this way, brother." 

\--

The doors open with a light sound. Barton steps through them with fast steps, as if he is not carrying Holden’s slack body in a spacesuit. Naomi rushes towards the two men. She unlocks the captain's helmet with fast movements and help Amos strip Holden’s garment down, lay him down on a the medchair and place the captain's arm into the autodoc. 

Naomi holds her breath as her glance falls onto Holden's left leg. From above the knee down to the ankle the skin was nearly black and the shinbone looks broken. The first numbers and curves appear in the screen above the chair. They are not looking good. His heart is beating so fast that a heart attack is only a question of seconds. Holden’s blood values are out of rage, in every possible scale. 

"He needs extra oxygen." Amos orders as he fixes a medical cuff on Holden’s leg. 

Naomi can't hold back her tears as she grab the oxygen mask and fix it as gentle as possible above James mouth and nose. With a low beep the medical system of the Rocinante starts with its work to save the human in its care. 

"James tried to say goodbye to me." Naomi mumbles and Amos raise an eyebrow so Naomi continues "Before Prax had the idea with the nuclear core, James contact me over the coms. He's talking about, what I have to do when he's gone- that I have to let him go and fly away with the Roci and your guys to be save." 

Amos expression softens in a cute kind of way and he take the sobbing Naomi into a hug. "But it wasn't a goodbye. We killed the monster. We saved our captain!" 

Naomi smiles "The way you say it, it sounds as if we're saving the princess and killed the dragon." 

Amos face light up and it almost seems as if he's smiling "Yes. Your princess!"

Prax and Alex came through the door of the med bay. "Oh gosh. What happened? Is he dead?" Alex rushes to the medchair. 

Naomi let Amos go and smiles at the pilot "No need to worry. Our captain is in rough shape, but he will be okay. His values are already back going into the normal range. That was a rescue mission in the very last second.” 

Alex and Prax seems to be satisfied and Alex grab Amos by the arm “Okay. Let him rest. Maybe Naomi will call us guys, when our captain will wake up.”

\--

"Good to see you back from the dead, Hoss." Alex shouts as the crew came into the med bay to see how their captain is doing.. 

Sitting upright into the medichair with a medical cuff and the bracer around his nearly black left leg Holden gives his crew a weak smile "You're sure it's gone?" he asks a little bit worried into the round.

"Damn straight." Alex beams at him "We stripped it right down to its nuclei!" and to celebrate this goal the pilot just pats Holden’s thigh only to get the captain bent over, grabbing the medical cuff and groaning in pain.

Alex holds up his palms in defense "Sorry Hoss. That's gotta hurt." 

Holden shakes his head, take a deep breath and fight back the pain to look up again. "Good job man." he smiles at his pilot and look to all the other crew members "You guys really saved my ass!" 

Naomi look into James eyes. He is alive and everything will be okay. Someday.

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. Yeah. I know that I'm late for the Expanse party, but I started watching it only a few weeks ago. Let me say it this way: I am all in!  
> 2\. English is not my first language and unfortunately I don't have a beta, so if there are any mistakes please be so kind and report them to me.  
> 3\. I read fanfiction since forever, I have wonderful ideas for stories and never write them down. This is the first story that makes it over the finish line in one piece.  
> 4\. I am happy to share it with you :)


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